Journal

I'd do the Vanishing into Finn Air gag here but actually I was flying KLM.

I'm in Finland. Came through the airport door and was met by my publisher, who knew when I was arriving, and by my Finnish stalkers, who had figured out from the journal when I would be landing. I'd been in transit for 24 hours, so I suspect that the photos they got of me were barely human.

Still, I had dinner with all three of them tonight and more red-eyed photographs were taken.

Lots of people have written to tell me about Salon.com doing a really nice feature on me, but this one gets in because... well, just because, really.

Hey, there's an article about you and Endless nights on Salon:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2003/09/25/gaiman/index.htmlA comment about Endless Nights and Despair: thank you very much for the face of Despair #14, the suicidal woman. The mental image of her ghost watching her body be moved away, just waiting for the happiness to start was the most evocative I have ever read. Really, though, how can you do anything to make yourself joyful, happy, content, or anything if you are merely a shade? My family has always had a c'est la vie attitude towards suicide so in one part of my mind suicide has always seemed an acceptable solution. That part was very effectively muzzled after reading that. Thank you and be safe in your travels.

Thank you... Lots of people pointed out that you can access the Salon.com content with a "day pass", by watching or clicking through a 15 second ad, which is no hardship... (And the article made Jessa at the wonderful Bookslut blog say something nice about Laura Miller, thus increasing the total amount of peace, harmony, and lurve in the universe by several improbabilities.)

Hello
I'm currently looking for work and a friend said I should be a research assistant, as I have a head for seemingly useless facts. I was wondering if you have ever had someone helping gather interesting and unusual material for you or know of anyone who does?

Thanks
James Moore

You know, for most authors, that's the fun bit, the whole head filled with otherwise-useless facts bit. I could delegate lots of things, but I don't know how I'd delegate that one, I'm afraid.

Not a question. Just wanted to welcome you to Finland. It's great to have you visiting these northern wastes every 2-3 years or so... See you on saturday.

Jouni (a gentleman from Finland)

PS. Got an email from the webmaster for the Israeli Neil Gaiman website. He wanted to use a panel from my comics version of 'Babycakes' illustrating a Hebrew translation of the story (he has a permission from Neil's online publisher to put the story online). If you want to check out the site, go to http://www.dreaming.co.il/index.shtml or if your computer doesn't understand Hebrew, you can check out my comics version in http://ljconstantine.com/babycakes/page1.htm

And Jaime Hernandez, of Love and Rockets fame, is interviewed over at Suicide Girls about the book's 25th Anniversary. http://suicidegirls.com/words/Jaime+Hernandez/ (Remember, there are lots of (extremely nice) naked Suicide Girls at the Suicide Girls site, so you may want not to look at it at work. Failing that, you can always explain to your boss that you read it for the articles...)